Audio 3:21
East Ukraine still not under govt control

Michael VincentUpdated
Thu 17 Apr 2014, 6:25 AM AEST

The Ukrainian government's attempt to re-assert control over the east of its country appears to have foundered. Some forces have been stopped by pro-Russian crowds blocking their path. Other Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers are now flying Russian flags. It further complicates the situation ahead of talks between the US, EU, Ukraine and Russia tomorrow in Geneva.

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Ukrainian government's attempt to re-assert control over the east of its country appears to have foundered. A day after Kiev mounted an operation to remove pro-Russian militants from public buildings there are reports of armoured vehicles being seized by crowds and Ukrainian troops disarmed.

And in a sign that Russia's neighbours are ever more nervous, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is beefing up its presence in states that border Russia. So the region is locked in a dangerous dance ahead of talks between the United States, European Union, Ukraine and Russia tomorrow in Geneva.

North America correspondent Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Some of Ukraine's soldiers have gone from an attempted show of force to sitting and waiting on their armoured personnel carriers in the sun. As helicopters buzzed over head (sound of a helicopter) and Ukrainian fighter jets flew low passes (sound of a jet) a column of APCs (armoured personnel carriers) sat blocked by crowds of locals near the eastern town of Kramatorsk.

"Ukrainian military vehicles which were on their way to suppress the riot in Slavyansk," he says, "were stopped by the people in Kramatorsk, they were blocked. The people asked us to come, we came there and the paratroopers battalion joined us".

It's been reported that Ukrainian paratroopers have retaken a military air base, but otherwise the overall effect of today's actions was to show up the central government's inability to exert its control over pro-Russian regions.

NATO has decided to take immediate steps to increase the number of planes policing the skies of its member nations as well as increased allied ships in the Baltic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

PHILIP BREEDLOVE: We need to now take measures to assure our allies of our complete commitment to our Article 5 collective defence and that's what these measures today are about.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Representatives of the US, EU, Ukraine and Russia are now flying into Geneva for talks to resolve the situation.

US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf says the United States has very clear goals.

MARIE HARF: So we want the Russian government to pull its forces back from the border and from the Crimean region of Ukraine. We want it to halt the destabilising actions in violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty and we want the Russians to call for armed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine to stand down and disarm.

MICHAEL VINCENT: But even former US officials are sceptical about what can be achieved.

Strobe Talbott was a US deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration. He says Vladimir Putin has only one goal.

STROBE TALBOTT: And that is to do everything possible to destabilise Ukraine, to make sure that the government that succeeded the brutal and corrupt presidency of Yanukovych fails to have elections in another month and his long term goal is to build upon that instability a reimposition of Russian domination of Ukraine.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The White House says Ukraine's interim government is showing "admirable restraint" in its attempts to restore law and order.